There are many wonderful books around and in here I picked the ones I found useful or have recommended to my clients to help them with their coaching. The list is not in order of preference.
Books for Individuals
| Book |
Author |
Description |
Get it at Amazon |
| The 7 habits of Highly Effective People
|
Stephen R. Covey |
This one has been around for a long time. I like it because it's got a lot of useful models and practical advice on how to deal with pressures at work. Downside, too many examples involving wonderful children, generous neighbours and thoughtful parents. Still a good read. |
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| Be Your Own Life Coach |
Fiona Harrold |
If you're like working through things by yourself this book is for you. I like Fiona's style of writing, it's not patronising and it gets point across. Packed with exercises, case studies and step by step programmes it's a great way to learn more about yourself. |
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| The Power of Focus |
Canfield, Hansen, Hewitt |
This book deals with some of the key concepts of coaching like habits, boundaries, confidence, simplifying life etc. It takes you through 10 focusing strategies each dealing with a different aspect of success. What I like about it is that it's practical and full of personal experiences. |
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| The Present |
Spencer Johnson |
You've probably heard of "Who moved my cheese" which is another one of Johnson's bestsellers. It can be a bit too cheese and American but it conveys some great principles through a very simple and readable story. For 60 min of your time, which is what you'll need to read this book, you'll get some great insights about the importance of focusing on the present and not living in the past or dreaming about the future. Your life is what is happening now. |
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| Excuse me, your life is waiting |
Lynn Grabhorn |
The premise of this book is that it's not only what we think but what we feel that impact what we get in life. Lynn believes that we all emit energy and we attract things that are the same frequency. It's the power of focusing taken to emotional level of feelings. |
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| I could do anything if I only knew what it was |
Barbara Sher |
I love this title. Many of my clients feel exactly like this. Barbara has defined a number of key reasons because of which people don't do what they love. Some examples are: Fear of success, I want to many things, on the wrong track and moving fast, I want something I shouldn't want - it's trivial or unworthy, noting ever interests me etc. It's a good starting point if you can identify with some of the categories dealt with in the book. |
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| The Tao of Motivation
|
Max Landsberg |
As you can see I liked the Tao of Coaching so I bought other Max's books. Written in the same format and style as the Tao of Coaching it deals with motivation through adventures of our friend Alex. It starts with offering a motivational model which he calls VICTORY - Vision, Impetus, Confidence, Taking the plunge, Observing outcome, Responding to feedback, You. It covers each aspect in more detail and goes to discuss reasons for not being motivated, what destroys motivation, role of praise and the importance of being authentic etc. It makes a brief reference to NLP with "practical tips from a theory with a daunting name". |
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| The Disease to Please
|
Harriet B. Braiker |
The subtitle for this is "Curing the People-Pleasing Syndrome". I often come across people who find it difficult to say "no" to others and have beliefs that sound noble but are essentially harmful to them. I like this book because it talks about this by addressing three areas: your mind, your habits, and your feelings. It offers 21-day action plan that covers things like "Don't say "yes" when you want to say "no", "The counteroffer" or how to deal with saying no in a nice way, "The sandwich technique" of saying no, "Taking yourself off Approval Addiction", "self care" etc. |
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Now, discover your strengths
|
Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton |
A great book for those who want to improve own performance and for those who're working with others like mentors, coaches, and managers. The key argument of this book is that in order to excel at anything you need to utilise what comes naturally to you, what is your natural strength. Trying to improve on a weakness to the point where you become the best in doing it is a futile and time wasting task. Simply because there will always be someone who's natural talent is greater than your learned skill. It doesn't say that you shouldn't work on "putting strategies in place" to manage your weaknesses but that once you know your strengths you need to make them the core of what you do. Each book comes with at password to do a test to fine your core strengths. Embracing this concept is the key to creating the life and work you can truly enjoy. |
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Books for Mentors / Managers
| Book |
Author |
Description |
Get it at Amazon |
| Emotional Intelligence |
Daniel Goldman |
Goldman's work is viewed by many as a corner stone for the new way of looking at human excellence. He maintains that the IQ is just a part of what makes us successful and that our emotions, conscious and sub-conscious play a major role in how well we do in life. This is mainly because the traits like self awareness, persistence, motivation, social interaction etc. are driven by our emotional responses and anyone who ever tried to achieve anything will know that without the above mentioned traits one can achieve only so much. The book can feel a bit academic at times as Goldman goes into detail about our brain and where the emotion "comes from" but it's also has enough examples to answer the "so what?" question for those who like to dive into practical application of it. |
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| The Definitive Book of Body Language |
Allan and Barbara Pease |
I like this book because it's practical. It's split into sections, each dealing with a different aspect of body language. It starts by putting it all in context, then it covers the basics like "Three rules for accurate reading", "Why it's not what you say", "Can you fake it?" etc. The next 16 chapters go into more detail on a specific cluster of "signs" like "reading" what people say with their hands, smiles and laugher, arms, hand and thumb gestures, eyes, legs and the way people sit. Chapter 13 is about the most common gestures you see daily which can be a nice way to start from (at least I did). There is also a chapter on display of affection and attraction and reading secret signals. Power plays, interviews and office politics is left for last but they are equally amusing. I believe that to know this and apply is a great skill however, caution, before you judge someone with their arms crossed as defensive check that they're not feeling cold and are merely trying to warm up! |
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| The Tao of Coaching |
Max Landsberg |
I got this book as a present from a dear colleague when I declared I was leaving consulting to become a coach. It is a lovely caching book for anyone who would like to get better understanding of what coaching is and learn a very useful coaching model - GROW. GROW stands for Goals, Realities, Options and Wrap up. It's written as a real life story of a manager Alex who's learning about coaching and putting it into practice and sharing his insights with us. It covers things like eliciting and giving feedback, listening well, quick coaching (in-the moment coaching), skill/will matrix, overcoming reluctance of being coached, motivating, cultural differences, mentoring etc. Each chapter is just a few pages but it conveys a lot of information. It's a book you can go back to over and over again. |
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| Good to Great |
Jim Collins |
I bought this book because I wanted to read more about the Level 5 leadership, which is the new concept that Jim Collins and his team introduced in this book. This is one of those books that came out of a strong body of research and observation, which led the team to some surprising conclusions. They set to answer the question "Can a good company become a great company and, if so, how?” They picked the companies whose "averaging cumulative stock returns were 6.9 times the general market in the fifteen years following their transition point". They found out that the leaders who took a company from good or failing to truly great (based on the above criteria of stock return) were different from your standard high profile, big personality types. They were "self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy" but they had the drive and put the company before everything else, even themselves. The book covers other factors as well like vision - which again was different for those companies to what you would normally expect. These companies first hired the right people and then decided what they wanted to do. Other chapters are "Confront the brutal fact" but never lose the hope that you’ll succeed, "Hedgehog concept" or if your core business can't be the best in the world, change it; "A culture of Discipline", "Technology Accelerators" or never use technology as a primary means of igniting a transformation; "The Flywheel and the Doom Loop" or a transformation is a long journey where persistence and tenacity is what gets your a breakthrough. |
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| That's just the way I am |
Willem van der Does |
The subtitle of this book is "Understanding and dealing with troublemakers, wimps and oddballs". It's written by a clinical psychologist and illustrated by a cartoon artist, which makes it a fun read. It deals with the following personalities: narcissistic, hysterical or those who crave attention and more attention, psychopathic or egoistic personalities, instable and impulsive, helpless or dependent personality, control and perfection or compulsive personalities, shame and fear of failure or avoidant personalities, reclusiveness and eccentric personalities. Each personality is described in terms of their traits and there is a section on how to deal with them most effectively. The illustrations are funny and you can start by browsing the book and just reading the cartoons! |
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| Change your questions change your life |
Marilee G. Adams |
…or 7 powerful tools for life and work. This is similar in style to Max Landsberg's "Tao" books I.e. it's written as a story of a guy who's going through some tough times and is introduced to the "Choice Map™" It's a simple concept but the one that works. Its premise is that at any point of crises, decision, or simple day to day reasoning about the world you have a choice to go down the "Learner path" or less constructive "Judger Path". The “Judger path” is "blame" path - "who's to blame?” "What's wrong with me/them?", "Why am I such a failure?", "Why are they so stupid". Going down this "path" you inevitably get stuck. If you, however, choose to go up the "learner path" you ask more empowering questions like "What happened? What's useful here?", "What can I learn?", "What is the other person thinking, feeling, needing and wanting?", "What am I responsible for?". I know that sometimes it's easier to go down the judger path and it can become like an indulgence, a "rightful" place to be. However, even if you have to drag yourself, kicking and screaming, up the learner path you need to do just that. The difference in results is huge. |
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| The art of Mentoring |
Mike Pegg |
This is a guide more than a book. It is packed with models, exercises, forms and examples. Mike uses a mentoring model, which stipulates that in a mentoring conversation you cover the 5 Cs: Challenges, Choices, Consequences, Creative Solutions, and Conclusions. The book is split into the principles and practice of mentoring and is a great starting point or a nice "toolbox" book to have if you're a mentor or a coach. |
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